Torchlight sells 500,000 copies, publisher buys in for $8.4M

The monster-slaying, dungeon-crawling PC and Mac game Torchlight has become a …

Independent games have a hard road to tread—little to no marketing budget, small teams, competition from huge, well-known names. That's why it's worth celebrating when a great game from a small developer becomes a hit. And Torchlight didn't just sell in decent numbers, it sold in huge numbers for a game of this type: 500,000 copies to date.

That's not just a hit in the world of independent gaming, that's a hit in any corner of this business.

"We basically approached all the usual suspects—Steam, Direct2Drive, etc, and began setting up those partnerships and agreements," Runic Games' Wonder Russell told Ars. "There is definitely an ease-of-use and approachability with digital downloads that is a huge help to the indie developer, but getting the word out there that you have a game for sale that’s a lot of fun to play is always going to be the trickiest part of the business, especially for a small company like ours, with zero marketing budget."

In an interesting twist, Perfect World Entertainment has now purchased a majority stake in Runic Games for approximately $8.4 million. Perfect World is known more for Chinese MMO releases than single-player dungeon crawlers, so the company is likely looking towards the MMO update for Torchlight that's coming in the next few years.

This is great news for everyone involved, and it proves that you can still pour your heart into a game and be greatly rewarded. Torchlight is available on a selection of digital distribution platforms, including Steam for Mac gamers, for $19.99.

This is delightful news for the developers. Torchlight is a fun game; it doesn't try to be anything it's not, it pays homage to the games that inspired it, it looks nice and it is obviously the product of a lot of work and a lot of love. Definitely worth $10 or $20.

I loved this game. It was tons of fun and had great polish, especially for a game without a monster budget. Glad it worked out so well for them and here's to hoping for something even better with the Torchlight MMO.

Fun Game, yes. But still it has to be said: aside from the graphics, it's a carbon-copy of Diablo 2. The graphics are hugely better than D2 and the cartoonish style works very well, but the skill trees are not very well done, and the item system lacks the depth of D2, making its replay value IMHO much less than D2s.Still at 10$, I am very happy with my purchase. It will occupy me a bit while waiting for Diablo 3.

Bought this when it was $5 a month or two back on Steam. That's the way to sell 'em - "eh, I'll hardly have time to play it, but for five bucks, why not?" or "$20? eh, I'll hardly have time to play it, pass".

As someone who plays a lot of WoW and enjoyed the hell out of Dungeon Siege, it's a decent game. The graphics are top-notch, and the mechanics follow an established formula. I was disappointed that it's pretty much a solo quest; in single-player dungeon crawlers, I like being able to control a team of adventurers who have various abilities. Second is that the camera angle is frozen; no swinging the camera around to get a better look at something. Of course, it's a trade-off. Using a fixed camera angle means that the game can rely on a lot of 2D sprites, and thus reduce the 3D video card requirements; this game is supposed to be playable on a netbook.

I enjoyed the game and am glad to see that there's at least one independent game company getting somewhere these days. It will be interesting to see where they take their MMO game, though $8.4M isn't enough to build a MMO.

I just picked it up for the Mac last weekend and have been playing it since. Sure it's just like Diablo II, but what's wrong with that? I enjoyed D2 and this is a prettier, runs at modern resolutions, variant.

My girlfriend was intrigued and bought her own copy.

We played it after dinner last night and didn't open our copies of Red Dead Redemption because it was too late in the evening after 1.5 hours of Torchlight.

Not bad for a little indie game that could.

Also can someone refresh my memory? What's the item setup in Torchlight missing from Diablo II? It was various ranked items, sockets, dual wield, the ability to send your pet back to down is pure genius. What did D2 have that I'm forgetting?

I bought Torchlight and I just haven't had the urge to finish it. The repetition is quite painful, as are the mounds of useless items you collect and have to get your pet to sell. I'd rather more interesting and useful weapons that I have to think about whether I want to use and get more gold, than be rewarded with fifty bajillion pantsy weapons that are levels below what I need and just end up taking up space.

Also can someone refresh my memory? What's the item setup in Torchlight missing from Diablo II? It was various ranked items, sockets, dual wield, the ability to send your pet back to down is pure genius. What did D2 have that I'm forgetting?- CG

Torchlight lacks unique items, meaning an item level with unique icons and designed stats. The highest item rarity in Torchlight is yellow; these item don't have unique icons, and the stats on them feel randomized and not designed (their names also are disappointing). The same goes for set items (purple). I played D2 for years because I was collecting uniques and finding each one of them was a pleasure. I highly doubt I'll do the same in Torchlight because the items just feel less interesting.

Torchlight is fun and captivating, certainly deserves some praise; however, no one seems to care that this game is a complete mix-mash of Diablo and Fate. No wonder the game hit big, riding on the shoulders of 1.5 giants, but it also sacrificed content in so many other areas to make release; namely the multi-player aspect.

I bought it and definitely enjoy it (yes, I still play), but I think extending the game to multi-player would be much more appealing than creating an MMO around it.

Easily one of the best $5 steam games I've ever purchased. Anybody that liked diablo could do a lot worse than torchlight. My only gripe is that my Vanquisher basically had to become a caster at high levels. I need more pew pew pew in her normal weapon attacks.

Such a good game, I have never sat down and played it for hours at a time but, it's perfect for those 30 min stints of game time. Keep up the good work guys, can't wait to see what they can make with a real budge.

For those of you who want to hate because it's a "clone" of Diablo or Fate (or Mythos or Sacred, or or or...), you're missing the point. In a world of software/music/movie piracy-run-rampant, it's hard for these guys to make money - e.g. Flagship Studios. Good for them for finding their way and providing a quality game.Appreciate it's similarities to the games we've loved playing over the years and leave it at that.

I'm glad they didn't wait until the MMO version was ready. Besides, then you'd just call it a WoW clone.

I've enjoyed playing this game with my daughters (10 and 7) because it doesn't show blood like Diablo. They absolutely love this game. It's something we do together. During battles, they keep me in "bloods" and Mana. Also, I can delegate fishing to my youngest and let my oldest handle some of the less major battles.

i think it sold so well because it was cheap for a good while.price games at 10 bucks and they'll sell like crazy. 60, not so much.

Maybe I'm getting cheap in my old age, but I can't put $50-$60 into my budget without doing some pretty serious planning. On the other hand a $10-20 game I can swing by brown-bagging my lunch an extra day during the week.

I've always wondered for a while what the sales numbers would be for a big name game (with the associated ad budget) that is priced at 20 bucks to start out.

Blizzard has a reputation of taking years to release games to get them right instead of releasing the drek that most video games are. Me too has been copies of any original gameplay design. And Diabo III is being developed right now. The gaming public has known about this for 2 years already. It wouldn't surprise me at all if we don't see the game for sale until 2012. That's just how Blizzard rolls. The detractors say the D3 will be a simplified isometric version of World of Warcraft. Maybe. One thing it will have for sure - great itemization. After the nearly flawless gameplay mechanics, that's the main thing that has kept D2 going on after all these years.

I picked up Torchlight because I wanted to support game development for the Mac platform. I was perfectly fine with the fact that is was going to be a pale copy of Diablo. It is a good mindless dungeon treasure grab for 30 minutes at a time. It doesn't try to be anything else.

I am happy for Runic Games and how they finally hit the big time. It's quite likely I won't play the MMO version of Torchlight. At this stage in my life - MMO games take up too much time to be played seriously. I'll stick to the single player experience, thank you.

Bought in on Steam for $5 back around Christmas. It was a nice distraction, but not really my cup of tea. However... I am glad to see an independent game being recognized. Maybe for the next title they'll think a little outside of the box.

bought this game at $20 and after playing, felt it was a great price for the game.. loved DI & DII. loved this one. they did sell a ton of copies at $5.. but look at how much D&D has made by giving the game away for free.

they filled a market need and built up a big fanbase chomping at the bit to get the next/MMO version - i just hope they don't rake us over the coals with the price.

I have to say, I'm not a gamer at all. However, I had been looking into this game for a while now and was impressed. I was even more impressed when I got it for $10.00 on Steam for the first few days it had become available for the Mac.Runs smoothly, and is addicting. I think they made a quality product here.

D3 could come faster if they stopped with World of Warcraft expansions. I know it's a huge market and it makes financial sense to keep improving WoW, but that ship sailed for me years ago. I can't phathom that people are still playing the same game 6 years running >_<.

When I dropped WoW, it was amazing the variety of games I played instead of it

Why should they? There's an endless demand for, "More of the same, but not the same." If a game is fun, and sells well, people will inevitably want to do it again. But playing the exact same game gets boring, so people want the next iteration, to bring the "newness" back to mechanics they already like.

I am happy for them and have no regrets about buying the game, but I think a reason for their success is that the game is basically a modern clone of D2 and was released 1) after D3 was announced and 2) before Blizzard released any playable form for D3. Thus, for most players, it's just a cheap holdover until D3 is released. I think the price point was perfect, too.

Are there any mods for this game's interface? I love the concept of "Diablo 2.5", but I hate the click click click click click click click click attacking.

kontos wrote:

sword_9mm wrote:

i think it sold so well because it was cheap for a good while.price games at 10 bucks and they'll sell like crazy. 60, not so much.

Maybe I'm getting cheap in my old age, but I can't put $50-$60 into my budget without doing some pretty serious planning. On the other hand a $10-20 game I can swing by brown-bagging my lunch an extra day during the week.

Lol, just brownbag every lunch, like I do sometimes. That's how I ate my way to Bad Company 2.

Dual wielding is great and having a pet that can run errands is a great time saver. I also like that you can remove gems from items and add new enchantments (although losing everything on my awesomely unique gun was devastating!). Best of all, you can quit at any point and your game is saved exactly where you finished - no stupid Diablo method of dumping you back to the village.

I also like the communal stash where you can leave nice items etc. for any other characters you have. So many times in Diablo I'd find some amazing item for the wrong character type.

My criticisms would be the plethora of crap weaponry you pick up because the drops don't scale with the level you're at, and often the level requirements of weapons are set too high - by the time you hit that level the weapon won't be that effective.